The Cabinet-Purcell Mountain Corridor (CPMC) serves as a critical transboundary link connecting wildlife populations in southeastern British Columbia with those in north Idaho and northwestern Montana. The Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) has successfully brought together 60+ conservation organizations, land trusts, government agencies, and tribal groups to form a collaborative conservation framework for the CPMC region. Together, this Cabinet-Purcell Collaborative is responsible for securing and restoring vital habitat that allows wildlife to move freely between core areas, reducing human-wildlife conflict, and mitigating the impact of highways on wildlife. As part of this partnership, Y2Y has worked with conservation organizations and agencies to identify priority corridors for conservation and hotspots for wildlife vehicle collisions, restore forests, decommission roads, reconnect streams, fence attractants from bears and other animals, and purchase and restore private lands in critical grizzly bear corridors.

About the presenters:

Candace Batycki, Program Director, British Columbia and Yukon, has more than 25 years conservation advocacy experience, with a focus on protecting ecosystems for threatened and endangered wildlife. Candace has worked on campaigns to protect marine ecosystems, grizzly bears, and forest protection, including protection of two million hectares of mountain caribou habitat in the inland temperate rainforests of BC.

Kim Trotter, US Program Director, is based in Driggs, Idaho, brings more than two decades of on the ground conservation work to Y2Y as a conservation advocate and coalition builder. Kim has extensive experience in private land conservation, stream restoration and environmental policy.

Lacy Robinson, Cabinet-Purcell Mountain Corridor Project Coordinator, is a trained wildlife biologist who has studied Canada lynx, snowshoe hares, and many carnivore species. In 2010, Lacy co-created the Multi-species Baseline Initiative (MBI), a five-year collaborative project to determine the status and distribution of 200 species of wildlife across a 23,000-square-kilometer study area centered on the Idaho Panhandle. She now coordinates Y2Y’s collaborative efforts in the Cabinet-Purcell Mountain Corridor.